I keep waiting for Betty to start in with the "mother's little helpers" that the Rolling Stones sang about years ago. Wasn't it around '62?

I thought she'd had a boy for some reason. Huh.

Oops - you might be right. That was a little boy the priest pointed at.

Wasn't it around '62?

More like '65-'66. But diet pills and tranqs were already being widely distributed by the early sixties.

Thalidomide was first prescribed in the late '50s. And while it isn't quite the same thing, sociologists had noticed by the mid-'50s that a lot of middle class women were bored with life as homemakers, and would treat with large amounts of alcohol (among other remedies).

sociologists had noticed by the mid-'50s that a lot of middle class women were bored with life as homemakers

A lot of it had to do, IIRC, with the sense of independence that women had fostered throughout WWII, making up the workforce and having to keep households afloat while the men were overseas. A lot of women who had come of age during that time period had seen possibilities where before there had been none.

Yeah, Peggy's sister confessed to the young priest because she knew that it was him - she just wanted to make things more difficult for Peggy because she thinks Peggy has it too easy.

And Colin Hanks and Vincent Kartheiser resemble each other amazingly well: when I saw the preview last week I thought that they were going to be playing brothers. (Although, we've already met Pete's brother and he's completely different from CH.)

Also increased educational opportunities for women. A woman with a college education isn't going to use most of it in the day-to-day routine of childcare, cleaning, and running errands.

I'm relying heavily on David Reisman's The Lonely Crowd. He talks about doing door-to-door surveys -- middle class women were the most likely to cooperate because they were starved for intelligent conversation with an adult.

On a more personal level (and my upbringing was rural blue collar), I remember a fair number of afternoon gatherings in the neighborhood when I was a kid. A group of women would meet at the home of one. The women would sit in the kitchen or the living room and chat about -- well, I was too young to pay much attention. The kids were turned loose to play, and we were expected not to bother our mothers without good reason.

Yeah, they used to show more of the neighborhood socialization, with Francine, and with the shunning of the divorcee. It seems like there would be more of that going on. Socializing, not shunning, I mean.

I wish we were seeing a happily married couple, though. A well-adjusted adult. Was everybody really so miserable all the time, with only flashes of laughter to ameliorate the grimness?

Did Betty ever stop with the tremors and stuff? Was psychoanalysis enough for that, and it wasn't anything else?

It's such an interesting conversation, difficult as it is. Peggy's sister & Peggy have chosen disparate paths, and Peggy's denial means that Peggy's sister is subsidizing Peggy's choice, whether or not she wants to.

Exactly. It's just so messy and complicated.

They're getting pretty close to making Betty completely unlikeable.

Pretty close? Man, I think just about everyone other than Harry is completely unlikeable. What's amazing about the show is that it makes all of these characters who are utterly appalling 85% of the time so damn compelling.

What's amazing about the show is that it makes all of these characters who are utterly appalling 85% of the time so damn compelling.

Seriously, you'd think it was HBO.